1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of dental hygiene, and more particularly relates to dental flossing devices.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Dental hygiene is an important part of a person's overall health and cleanliness, and helps combat tooth decay, peritonitis, and halitosis. It generally includes the removal of food particles or other foreign substances and the prevention of plaque buildup on the teeth. Dental flossing has long been recognized as an effective aid for cleaning the interproximal spaces between the teeth and along the sides of the teeth where many food particles and plaque become lodged. An effective dental or oral health regimen often includes frequent brushing, flossing, and tongue scraping in order to achieve the best results.
There is a wide variety of cleaning devices and combination cleaning devices designed for oral hygiene. For example, there are a number of combination toothbrush-flosser products. Theses implements may be handy at first use, but the flosser thread usually breaks long before the toothbrush wears out, so it quickly becomes a much less useful tool. Dental flossers usually include a gripping handle and a pair of approximately parallel spaced prongs or arm-like members extending from one end of the handle. One or more strands of floss or a floss tape is stretched across the span between the two arms. The user inserts the floss strand or tape between two adjacent teeth and cleans the edges of the teeth and a portion of the sides of the teeth by rubbing the floss against the engaged areas of the teeth. The user rubs the floss up and down while exerting lateral pressure on the floss against the edges and sides of the tooth. Then the user duplicates the procedure on the adjacent tooth before proceeding to floss the next pair of adjacent teeth.
There are many flosser devices with mechanisms for self-storing, advancing, and tensioning the floss, but they are often rather complex and difficult to prepare for use. They require additional preparation and periodic cleaning, and when the floss strand breaks, it can become a time consuming process to re-thread and tension the floss. There are also some power-driven flossers and vibrating flossing devices, but their complexity and cost limits their practical appeal.
Textured dental flosses have been designed, and for some applications can have enhanced cleaning ability. There are a number of different floss configurations and textures that have been developed to provide increased friction and pressure against the edges of the teeth. Potential problems with textured floss include the difficulty of manufacturing it, and if there is an abrupt change in cross-sectional dimensions of the floss, it can be prone to breaking due to an abrupt increase in tension during use. In addition, floss segments of increased cross-section may not fit in some of the especially narrow interproximal spaces.
Examples of some representative dental flossers and dental flosses include those disclosed in the following patents:
U.S. Pat. No.InventorIssue Date4,265,258Eaton, IIMay 5, 19814,404,978WithersSep. 20, 19834,522,216BunkerJun. 11, 19854,832,062Grollimund, et al.May 23, 19895,433,226BurchJul. 18, 19955,545,480LalaniAug. 13, 19965,829,458ChodorowNov. 03, 1998
The Eaton, II patent is for floss consisting of one or more strands having a variable thickness. This product would be relatively expensive to manufacture. With its variable thickness, one or more strands may tend to snag or catch on rough edges or especially narrow gaps between teeth. This would often result in breakage of some or all of the strands. The Withers patent is for a four-prong, two-strand flosser. It is somewhat complex and would require a certain amount of dexterity and strength by the user to manipulate it. The Bunker patent is for a flosser with and X-shaped floss arrangement, but it requires the user to replace a worn floss strand and reattach a new length of floss when a floss strand wears out. The Grollimund patent is another 4-prong, two-strand (side-by-side strands) flosser. It, like the Withers unit, is rather complex and requires special user manipulation to operate. The Burch patent is for floss with alternating hard and soft segments that may not fit very well in many interproximal spaces. The Lalani patent is for floss with varying size beads. These beads may be too large to pass through some of the gaps between the teeth, so they would provide very little, if any, advantage over uniform-diameter floss. The Chodorow patent is for a flosser with two parallel strands, one above the other. It would provide some additional flossing surface, but the additional floss surface would be higher up on the tooth (lower tooth) where it would be less effective than the bottom strand.
Although there are many different types of dental flossers and floss currently available, significant efforts continue to develop more effective, practical, and user-friendly designs to accommodate the desires of consumers.